Ready, Steady, Go! – Active programs in Budapest

Enough of all this laziness – get active in Budapest! There are just so many options it would be a shame to miss out on any of them. Read through our short selection and get inspired.

What better way to explore Budapest than on two wheels? Luckily there are bike rentals scattered all over the city offering bikes for all tastes and sizes. Go for a renovated old-school city bike to blend in with the locals, a tandem to share the fun with your sweetheart or one with a kid's seat if you are with the family. Cycle paths make for a safe adventure.

For some active chilling Budapester-style, make your way to Margaret Island. In the warm months locals flock here to throw their frisbees and play badminton. Make sure to rent a Bringó hintó, a pedal-driven car and take your pals on a crazy ride across the island.

There are caves galore in Budapest, as there are in the rest of Hungary, and some of them happen to stretch under our busy capital. The Stalagmite Cave of Pálvölgy is the biggest and certainly the most beautiful among the caves underneath the city. It never gets boring as every corner is different, from the theatre-hall with its superb acoustics to the fairy tale-like formations of the Fable World (kids will love this). Some dripstones remind visitors of elephants, some of crocodiles, others of huge glistering Christmas trees!

Looking for a physical challenge? Kőkaland Sport & Adventure Park offers all kinds of weird yet fun activities that will make your adrenalin rise. The Wild Adventure package includes driving a quad and a monster truck, shooting and searching for bombs – sounds exciting, right? Another option is to cook a soup – but get all the ingredients through all kinds of crazy challenges first! Use your GPS, ride disfunctional bikes and perform an air-ballet five metres in the air to get what you need.

For a physical and mental challenge of a different kind, head to Ability Park. Navigate your wheelchair on the obstacle course (wheelchair-user animators will show you all the tricks), take part in memory and logic games using the sign language (these activities are led by staff members with hearing impairment), test your senses of smell and touch with help of the visually impaired, or head to the Miracle City and try to figure out the rules of this virtual town with the support of your mentally disabled mentors. Try disability – the other way round. This thematic amusement park has received a bunch of national and international awards for shifting social attitude in a fun and playful manner. It's definitely worth giving it a try.

Have you ever been to a lasertagdisco? We thought not... Tagmasterz is kind of a unique invention after all. It was developed out of the traditional lasertag and airsoft games into a completely new experience, one that is probably closest to what being in a video game must feel like. The DJ provides the tunes in the 2500 m2 cellar system, equipped with the latest light and sound technique, filled with lots of smoke, while you and your team mates battle it out.

For fun on horseback, head to the HSH Ranch. It's located in the picturesque Danube bend, on Szentendre Island and offers everything horsefans will love. Take your horse (or pony) of the day out into nature – the island is really beautiful and worth being explored!

If you feel you're in need of some speed, then kart-racing might be the right choice. Gokartring is Budapest's first go-kart track and by far the longest covered one at 420 metres long. The karts come from French manufacturer Sodi and are available in four categories: one for kids, one for juniors and two for adults: 160 cm3 and 200 cm3.

Are you striving to get high into the air? Get into a hot-air balloon then. The balloons of the Balloon Club can take you up from 50 to 1200 metres. Don't expect anything radical here though, this activity is about peace and quiet. The balloons fly slowly, at about 5-15 km/h (which is about the speed of a jogger...) there is no noisy motor, only the wind and a fantastic 360° view.